I wonder if that includes the other $300 or $400 unpaid bill to the prostitute.

Ummmmm,isn´t that a LOT of $$$ for 2-3 plane trips (which is it Sen.Menendez??)

So Menendez, servicing under-age prostitutes wasn´t so cheap, was it?

Well, we knoew eventually the media would circle the wagons for Melendez and everything he did is made to look harmless.

He even conveniently doesnt have to show the actual reimbursement to the donor which I seriously doubt even happened. This shouldn´t excuse the fact that he took a donor funded trip to begin with.

There´s plenty of prostitutes in this country that would have serviced Melendez´s depraved impulses but not underaged ones for the most part.So he gets his kicks with minors,something a republican would get lynched over.

I did not realize that Menendez was so rich that he could blow $58,500 for a couple of trips to a prostitute. This sounds like someone laundered some money through his account and that it went back to "pay" for the trips. Who ever heard of a politician paying his own bills out of his own pocket??

I am so weary of these people and their nefarious shenanigans. What we need is a really good House Banking Scandal or a House Post Office Scandal...either one or both would be fine. However, it must catch both Democrats and Republicans or it will never make the news.

He didn´t pay the girls so as far as he knows, it isn´t prostitution. That´s his story and he´s sticking to it. They were attracted by his shear Senatorial sex appeal.

Look, look - - I don´t know what the fuss is about.

Menendez had huge wads of illegal campaign funds whenever he went to the Dominican Republic. So there´s no way in the world that he would stiff those underage prostitutes.

Leave the guy alone - - those little girls were paid IN FULL.

I find everything about this nonstory-story disgusting, from the girls´ minor ages, to Menendez´s greasy fat face (not necessarily in that order).

And... does Mrs. Menendez buy his story?

Great reporting AP. When did he pay? Why diod he pay? Why did he go? Was it against rules....at any time? Like other posters say, How does he have $58k siutting around. How much are we paying these a-holes that they have this much disposable income?

There needs to be ethics hearings on Menendez and possible referrals for criminal prosecution. Where does Menendez get $58,500 for plane flights from a Senator´s salary? There are a lot of questions and the Senator needs to placed under oath.

Last time I checked - Sex Tourism was a federal crime. It doesn´t matter who paid what.

58,500 is MANY plane flights
Not just 2.
I do not think Dominican Republic teenage girls cost that much.

Sad part is, even if he is indicted and dismissed a bigger scum bag will be found in Jersey to take his place.

I´m sure he´ll be retiring soon to "spend more time with his ´family´ "

Just asking a question here, but why is the whole Republican party branded anti-woman when candidate Todd Akin SAYS something idiotic, yet the media is ho hum when an elected Senator in office actually pays underage women for sex?

Yes I know the answer. And I thought I couldn´t loathe the Kneepad media any more......

Maybe he should use the Hillary defense: What difference does it make.

Doing jobs American underage protitutes won´t do ... oh wait...

It´s the new Menendezcare service.

Even the scandals are puny under Obama

Wilbur Mills - chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee was involved in a traffic incident in Washington, DC at 2 a.m. on October 9, 1974.[3] His car was stopped by U.S. Park Police late at night because the driver had not turned on the lights. Mills was intoxicated, and his face was injured from a scuffle with Annabelle Battistella, better known as Fanne Foxe, a stripper from Argentina. When police approached the car, Foxe leapt from the car and jumped into the nearby Tidal Basin in an attempt to escape. She was taken to St. Elizabeth´s Mental Hospital for treatment.

Despite the scandal, Mills was re-elected to Congress in November 1974 in a heavily Democratic year with nearly 60% of the vote, defeating Republican Judy Petty. On November 30, 1974, Mills, seemingly drunk, was accompanied by Fanne Foxe´s husband onstage at The Pilgrim Theatre in Boston, a burlesque house where Foxe was performing. He held a press conference from Foxe´s dressing room.

Republicans can´t hold a candle to the sheer lunacy, debauchery and stupidity of Democrats.

And can´t get elected, either.

Somewhat credible until I got to the "out of his personal account" part.

Democrats don´t do that.

His personal money, or graft from his campaign stash?

#23, I agree.

I doubt it was a check he wrote out of his own personal account either.

Why didn´t he claim he went to Haiti on fact-finding trips to see how the U.S. could assist with their recovery projects after the 2010 earthquake? It´s on the same island of Hispaniola and all he would have had to do was drive to the other side of the island to go prostituting with more up-scale prostitutes.

While this may be off-topic, doesn´t it boggle the mind at the difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic? When I substituted for a 9th grade science teacher last year, we studied the reasons for the devastation in Haiti vs the seeming stability of the Dominican Republic. Haiti has cut down most of its trees and the DR hasn´t. It´s amazing to view the border between the two countries from the air.

Long-story, short - Menendez is either very arrogant or very ignorant if he thought he wasn´t going to get caught. I agree with #17 - he will probably be retiring soon to "spend more time with his family".

I would like to see the date on those checks -- if they really do exist. Did his wife cosign the checks>

Underage girls are children. Where is the moral outrage that Mr Menendez demonstrated when he was posing as an opponent to sex trafficking in the halls of the senate. This evil man is making laws and frolicking with children. Washington is sicker, more evil than Hollywood and I didn´t think that was possible.

I think AP misreported and dropped the decimal point. I believe the correct figure is $585.00, or less than $600. Menendez rips off his friends as well as his hookers.

Listen at this point what difference does it make. I am sure by now all the girls are of legal age. No harm was done. Old man Teen girl, it happens. Easy work for the girls no question. Now if he were Republican that would be different kettle of tuna ....

#22, good one, I enjoyed your recounting of a fine chapter in DimWitz history.

I was in DC for that one, although not involved, just near enough to catch
the drift.

Your retelling was almost complete... but not quite.
Allow me to interject...
She was no ordinary South American stripper.
She was "Fanne Fox, the Argentine Firecracker!!"
Proper billing for the lady, and credit where credit is due.

And recall that during that era, the diminutive gent from Oklahoma, Rep. Carl Albert, was Speaker of the House. He was infamous for banging his Korean secretary at the office (cops witnessed it).

So the full account of the wreck of the automobile at the Tidal Basin included
the additional observation --
"The Speaker was in the glove compartment."

Poor Wilbur... he was a notorious Good Ol´ Southern alcoholic.
Most infamously he gave an expert detailed explanation of U.S. tax policy once at a hearing or the White House, and later didn´t recall being there, he was so stone drunk.
Hence our complicated, convoluted tax code, it seems.
Wherever the word "Hic" appeared... it wasn´t Latin. It was... (sic).

Now, for this Menendez piker.
It will take a very Special Prostituter indeed to settle this fine mess.
Say, maybe...
BillyBoob Klintoon?
(speaking of sex-aholics from Arkansas)

He´s explained it, it´s a private affair, not public funds, he´s divorced and a Democrat Senator from NJ. Move on. (S/O)

Seriously, exactly nothing will happen. And those who are waiting for Krispy Kreme Kristie to do something will be waiting a long time. Here´s the phone call:

"Yo Chris, this is Barack. Remember those Sandy funds we voted for NJ? And that party at Springsteen´s house?"

Mendi and Algore et al are two peas in a ppod.